Pak team likely to undertake reciprocal tour

Kolkata:Encouraged by the huge success of the Indian cricket team's Pakistan tour the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is now working on a return tour of Pakistani team to India towards the end of this year or early 2005.

Disclosing this the BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya said in Kolkata on Saturday that, "the discussions between the two Boards are already on to finalise the timing of the return tour by Pakistan".

To a specific query he said that the "the timing of the tour is not yet final" as it will depend on the availability of both the teams, he added.

"We have to see what are the slots available to both the teams and work out details," Dalmiya said in an obvious reference to already packed international cricket calendar in the next season.

Indian team is expected to participate in a three-nation One-day series in Europe involving Pakistan and Australia just before the Champions Trophy in England that is scheduled from September 8 to 25.

This would be followed by Australia travelling to India for a four Test series in October then South Africa would visit India for a full-fledged tour in November.

On the other hand, Pakistan is scheduled to tour Australia in January 2005 and then would host Sri Lanka in March 2005.